Emmy Award-winning television writer and creator Damon Lindelof teams up with legendary artist Leinil Francis Yu and Dave McCaig to bring to life the highly popular comic book series: Ultimate Wolverine Vs. Hulk.

My review:

I will admit that this was something that I probably never would have considered watching except that my good friend Sebastian Spence was one of the voices. Marvel comics is something that has never captured my interest. However, I thought I’d give it a go, and my 11-year-old daughter, Martha, determined to view it with me.

First of all, if you have any preteens or teens in the house, this will probably be something they will relish. The animation is thoroughly different from what I had expected. It is reminiscent of comic book that has come to life. From the outset, Martha informed me of the various characters as she has seen The Avengers.   I knew absolutely nothing concerning these. My memories of the Hulk go back to my childhood and the original television series. This animated mini-series is absolutely nothing like that. And I only knew of the Wolverine by name. She imparted her knowledge to me, but even she found it strange that the Hulk was the “bad guy” in this collection.

In addition to all of this, the content is not for youngsters even in spite of the animation. There is some mild profanity and some bedroom/partial nudity scenes. It was not a major problem as this was animated, and I was not offended.  I am merely passing along a content advisory for parents.

There are six episodes in this little series, and the only person connected with the project that I had heard of was Sebastian Spence. So I genuinely struggle to say much about the other voices and writers. What I will say is that the voice talents and animation seemed to work  together fairly well throughout the series.  This is my first foray into the world of this kind of animation, so I am perhaps not the best person to judge this, I am sure. Martha and I both unquestionably relished the first three episodes.  There was a plethora of suspense and some plot intricacies that greatly intrigued us. The last three episodes did not seem quite as engrossing. In fact, the end for both Martha and me was rather anticlimactic, but that is just an opinion. I did appreciate and revel in the use of clever flashbacks as the various details of the back-story of the individuals were explicated.

As to Sebastian, it was quite a treat to hear his voice as the character of Bruce Banner (who becomes the Hulk). He also voiced another character, but I will let you see that on the credits. Indeed, as Bruce Banner, his voice fit the character well. Undoubtedly, as the tortured soul who felt great remorse over what his alter-ego (the Hulk) had done, he was magnificent.  No, his character does not resemble him physically, but I think he brought emotion and passion to this role albeit only through his voice. That is quite an amazing feat if you think about it as animation is rarely an easy thing to do, I am sure.

There were some fantastic lines throughout that kept Martha and me quite entertained. I think more than once I told her that we were probably having too much fun watching this. And since both she and I are rather familiar with Sebastian’s other works, there were times that we found ourselves highly amused. By in large, our favorite line was in the second episode in which Bruce Banner is having a discussion about lunch with a couple of other guys. In the most “sinister-sounding” voice, Bruce Banner tells them what he had for lunch: “Lettuce, tomato, and tofurky.” Needless to say, Martha and I laughed so much over that line that I lost our place in the episode and it took awhile to get us back on track. For the rest of our lives, I am certain that will be the first line we both think of when this particular series is mentioned.   The idea of Bruce Banner being a vegan (and Sebastian delivering the line in an expert voice in a completely serious tone) just was the highlight of humor for us.

In conclusion, if you are looking for something a bit different and you fancy a forage into the world of Marvel comics, this may be the very thing for which you seek. Indeed I salute those involved in this work as I can imagine it must not have been an easy project to put together. And to Sebastian, indeed I say bravo as this was essentially a first for him.  When it comes to any kind of acting, I will state again that I doubt there is a role he cannot conquer with finesse and credibility even if he is not “seen” on the screen.  His voice has a delightful quality to it anyway, and he has a tremendous range of vocal abilities.

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